Acropora Help!

[Bob 1000]

Only pest that would do that is aefw Acro eating flatworms and there are no circle bite marks there for that's not an option.. It turned out it was Alk swings, deep sand bed stirs(phosphate soup),possibly nitrates and too much purple up.. Calcium through the roof at 500, Alkalinity at 1.94, Magnesium at 1200..

 

[Josh]

I don't think you should be dosing the purple up, your rocks have a good amount of coralline on them so get onto a regular 2 part dosing cycle (i.e. ESV Bionic 2 part). Go slow and only make changes once a week to the dosing regimen.

I think your issue is Nitrates and Phosphates. You need to figure out why those levels are high and once that is resolved you should try again but this time with some nice montipora capricornis or montipora digitata, no acros until you are more comfortable with everything.

See if you can get a few areas that have higher flow for the SPS, it would be good if it was near the top of your rock work so you can give them some more light.

Once you get your levels back to normal I can give you a few free starter SPS that are really easy to keep. PM me.

 

[Simon Garratt]

Hi lushpan....heres what i make of your comments so far as a possible diagnosis.

In truth, I think you are suffering multiple cumulative issues that all add up to an evironment that whilst it may be acceptable to some LPS and soft corals, is probably too far wide of the mark for more sensitive Acroporids or possibly even some other more robust SPS species.

To highlight a few points.

Just tested Alk, it's normal. Usually I just bring a water sample to LFS, everything is fine, was there just couple days ago. I have 72 G tank, 2x150W/20K MH lights (5 hours a day) (this is quite a short photo period for SPS, especially considering the lamps are 20K which will usually have a lower photo synthetically available light yeild than lower kelvin light sources such as the 12 or 10K...even then, at 2 x 150W, Id be looking at a photo period of at least 6-8 hours per day with a maximum of 10-12), 24G sump with protein skimmer, also I use canister filter with different media to remove phosphates (clean every week...Good), 20% water changes with RO/DI water using Instant Ocean salt mix every two weeks (good), adding "PurpleUp" and Kent Marine "Essential Elements", (probably not helping much...everything you realy need is in your salt already bar a bit of occasional tweaking with something like C-Balance) There is one hard fast rule of keeping marines...If you cant test for it...you shouldnt add it...temperature 82. ( I think this may be one of your main issues, anything over 80 can be quite stressfull for SPS in closed systems, especially if other perameters are fluctuating out of ideal zones as well...Although in some systems they cope quite well (and in some cases in the wild) there are other aspects that allow the corals to cope with those conditions....For two years I couldn't keep any SPS for longer then 2 months.

MH

Metal Halide Lighting, typically used for high intensity light demanding corals such as SPS. Bulbs come in varieties of spectrums (7k, 10k,20k), and intensity (175W, 250W, 400W).

SPS

Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.

If your No3 is as high as you say, then this wont be helping. Exessive nutrients can cause imbalanced bacterial populations that 'may' be linked to tissue necrosis and other mortality issues. so some good water changes, a reduction in food input and some research on applicable food types for your stock will all help. and as already mentioned, if you have No3 in exess of 100ppm, you can bet your hamsters life that your Po4 is exessively high as well.


For now id suggest you hold fire on adding any more SPS until you have the system under 'your' control...as it stands at the moment, the system is running ahead of you, and you are trying to catch up.

This pages from my website may be of help in understanding basic chemistry issues and controling nutrients.

http://www.reef-eden.net/basic_chemistry.htm

http://www.reef-eden.net/Nutrient control.htm


regards

Simon.

 

[Lushpan]

Thanks, Simon. I didn't expect I would get so much help on this forum. Actually I raised the tempereture from 80 to 82 couple weeks ago and after that my Acropora started to loose color. Of course, high tempereature is not my only problem, but it will be easiest to fix

 

[prattreef]

Am I reading something wrong here or are you only adding Purple Up for Calcium and nothing for Alkalinity? As Simon suggests there are several problems going on simultaneously, but you can't just supplement calcium without supplementing alkalinity too. As you can see the results ( Bob is talking about your tank right?) are super high CA. and super low Alk. The 2 work in tandem (lets not even bring Magnesium into this equation just now). As suggested above, ditch the purple-up, and get yourself on a good 2 part or kalkwasser addition schedule. Then try to figure out why your No3 is so high--likely too much food. I'd also find a better LFS if that is the advice they gave you, and do a lot more reading on your own.

BTW, why are you surprised that you would receive so much help on MR? That is what the forum is supposed to be all about.

 

[Lushpan]

Yes, Bob (Tobin) gave me a supplement to raise and maintain Alkalinity, he gave me a Calcium also. No more Purple Up. No3 is high probably because I never siphoned my deep sand bed (5"). I've removed most of it now, did 50% water change and NO3 is down alot, but still high.

Am I reading something wrong here or are you only adding Purple Up for Calcium and nothing for Alkalinity? As Simon suggests there are several problems going on simultaneously, but you can't just supplement calcium without supplementing alkalinity too. As you can see the results ( Bob is talking about your tank right?) are super high CA. and super low Alk. The 2 work in tandem (lets not even bring Magnesium into this equation just now). As suggested above, ditch the purple-up, and get yourself on a good 2 part or kalkwasser addition schedule. Then try to figure out why your No3 is so high--likely too much food. I'd also find a better LFS if that is the advice they gave you, and do a lot more reading on your own.

BTW, why are you surprised that you would receive so much help on MR? That is what the forum is supposed to be all about.

 

[Lushpan]

Am I reading something wrong here or are you only adding Purple Up for Calcium and nothing for Alkalinity?

Yes, can you believe it? I've just learned about Alk after almost 2 years I have a tank. No wonder my corals are dying.

 

[prattreef]

Well, you are on the right track now. Go slow on the Nitrate reduction.

 

[thesauce]

Be sure to get those phosphates in check too. They will inhibit calcium utilization.

 

[leifkrarup]

For phosphates you?ll need a sensitive test kit eventually..i.e Rowa or D-D test kits. They?re exepensive but the cheaper ones are only usefull with concentrations above the limit for SPS.
It?ll probably take you some time to get your values down due to absorbtion in live rock. Your rocks will leak PO4 and NO3 for some time no matter how much water you change. A good way to exhaust your system for these nutrients is Vodka,vinegar, sugar or Zeovit methode.
With all respect: your reef is a mess! Please do not add more corals for a long time ahead untill your parameters are inline.

Ca: 400-450
Alk: 7-9 (Salifert scale)
Salinity: 1.023-1.027
NO3: <10
PO4: <0.03

Also double check salinity. SPS is very sensitive to rapid changes in salinity...will cause tissue loss. Stability must be maintained during water change. Ad SW with same salinity, temperature and Kh as in tank.
Stability, regarding parameters, above all is the key to succes with SPS. Especially Kh and salinity.
For maintaining Ca, Mg and Kh stable I recommend Balling methode (cheap) or calsium reactor. Don?t rely on adding various mixtures occationally....discipline regarding maintaining values is mandatory for a succesfull SPS reef.
Best wishes for your reef
Leif Krarup

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you for your input Leif! Surely it will be of much help to a great deal of us sps newbies.

By the way, what is Balling methode?

 

[Bob 1000]

For phosphates you?ll need a sensitive test kit eventually..i.e Rowa or D-D test kits. They?re exepensive but the cheaper ones are only usefull with concentrations above the limit for SPS.
It?ll probably take you some time to get your values down due to absorbtion in live rock. Your rocks will leak PO4 and NO3 for some time no matter how much water you change. A good way to exhaust your system for these nutrients is Vodka,vinegar, sugar or Zeovit methode.
With all respect: your reef is a mess! Please do not add more corals for a long time ahead untill your parameters are inline.

Ca: 400-450
Alk: 7-9 (Salifert scale)
Salinity: 1.023-1.027
NO3: <10
PO4: <0.03

Also double check salinity. SPS is very sensitive to rapid changes in salinity...will cause tissue loss. Stability must be maintained during water change. Ad SW with same salinity, temperature and Kh as in tank.
Stability, regarding parameters, above all is the key to succes with SPS. Especially Kh and salinity.
For maintaining Ca, Mg and Kh stable I recommend Balling methode (cheap) or calsium reactor. Don?t rely on adding various mixtures occationally....discipline regarding maintaining values is mandatory for a succesfull SPS reef.
Best wishes for your reef
Leif Krarup

I checked all his Pars and I'll check them again in a week.. He seem's to be on the right track now..

 

[leifkrarup]

Thank you for your input Leif! Surely it will be of much help to a great deal of us sps newbies.

By the way, what is Balling methode?

Balling is a cheap and simple way to provide the right amount of calsium and Kh on a daily basis. Balling is used by a lot of reefers here in Europe.

Short: buy 1 bucket of cheap calsium compound and 1 bucket of Kh compound...mix with prescribed amount of RO water and add equal amounts of the 2 liquids to your reef every day ( not at the same time, dosing must be with a couple of hours distance ) Measure Ca + Kh every day for a week in order to fine tune the doses. When your measurements shows consistancy you have found the consumption of your reef. The dosing can be automated with a dosing pump.
For more details on the Balling methode please Google ...ther?s a lot to be found regarding Balling on the web.

 

[leifkrarup]

I checked all his Pars and I'll check them again in a week.. He seem's to be on the right track now..

Great!... hate to see good money and innocent animals wasted for no reason but lack of knowledge

 

[leifkrarup]

Thank you for your input Leif! Surely it will be of much help to a great deal of us sps newbies.

By the way, what is Balling methode?

Newbie??? are you kidding you?ve been a member of this forum since 2003:splitspin:splitspin:splitspin